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Lady Jaydee is an extremely popular bongo flava artist, and was one of the first female artists in the style

Any country with as rich and diverse a mix of cultures as Tanzania’s is bound to have some unique styles of music. But recently, this blended cultural landscape has produced a style of music the whole country can claim as its own: bongo flava.

Bongo flava started as a Tanzanian take on American hip-hop and R&B; one of the earliest hits in the genre came in 1991 from Saleh Jaber (a.k.a. Saleh J), who rapped in Swahili over the instrumental track from Vanilla Ice’s hit “Ice Ice Baby” (which borrowed its instrumental from Queen’s hit “Under Pressure,” meaning the rapper couldn’t have chosen a more apt track: the real roots of the song are Zanzibari). Though previous Tanzanian artists had rapped, Jabir was the first to do so in Swahili, and his innovation started a movement. At the time (in the mid-90s), Jabir’s song was so popular it was even played on the conservative National Radio Tanzania, a notable feat for a rap song at the time.

While the style’s American roots are still evident, artists began to draw from traditional Tanzanian musical styles (like dansi and taarab) as well as from afrobeat, reggae, and dancehall styles, almost immediately.

Today, bongo flava is the most popular style of music among young people in Tanzania, and has spread beyond the country’s borders, gaining similar popularity in Kenya and Uganda.

Many of the songs are more than just catchy; the lyrics explore serious political and social issues, like corruption, poverty, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This explicit focus on education is also reflected in the genre’s name: “bongo” derives from the Swahili word for brain, “ubongo.” Rappers in the style celebrate street smarts and cunning, but rarely glorify excess for its own sake.

While the genre has developed its own set of rules, one of the most exciting elements of bongo flava is its adaptability to Tanzania’s many different cultures. Groups like the Maasai X Plastaz adapt the bongo flava sound with their own traditional musical influences, such as Maasai deep chanting.

The X Plastaz add Maasai influences to the melting pot of bongo flava; keep an eye out for a traditional Maasai warrior in this video!

Best of all, you don’t have to go to Tanzania to hear the infectious rhythms of bongo flava; not only are there multiple internet radio stations for the genre, one of the biggest is now based out of Chicago!

Queen was known as much for their flamboyant, over-the-top performances as their hit songs “Freddie Mercury performing in New Haven, CT, November 1978″ by FreddieMercurySinging21978.jpg: Carl Lenderderivative work: Lošmi – FreddieMercurySinging21978.jpg. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Freddie_Mercury_performing_in_New_Haven,_CT,_November_1978.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Freddie_Mercury_performing_in_New_Haven,_CT,_November_1978.jpg

Zanzibar is known for many things: its history as a spice island, its blend of cultures from all over the world, its white sand beaches…

…and Freddie Mercury.

Zanzibar’s best-known son (and hands-down its most fabulous), Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara in Stone Town in 1946. At the time, Zanzibar was still under British rule (Zanzibar didn’t join the country of Tanzania until independence in 1961). That meant that, though he was born on an island off the eastern coast of Africa, Mercury was born a British citizen.-

Mercury’s family were Parsis (the name for a branch of Zoroastrians that live in India), and his childhood was divided between Zanzibar and India. When Mercury was 17, however, the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution—during which several thousand Indians and Arabs were killed—drove his family from Zanzibar for good.

The family settled in England…

…and then the magic happened.

In 1970, Mercury joined Brian May and Robert Taylor to form what would become one of the best-loved rock bands of all time: Queen.

Over the years, their songs ran the gamut from disco to rockabilly to heavy metal. The one constant, however, was Mercury’s remarkable ability as a singer and performer. Ten of the 17 songs on Queen’s greatest hits album were written by Mercury, and in 2008, Rolling Stone editors ranked him 18th on their “100 Greatest Singers of All Time” list. In 2009, Classic Rock readers voted him the greatest rock singer of all time.-

Though Mercury died of complications from AIDS in 1991, the band’s popularity has hardly waned; according to the RIAA, Queen has sold nearly 35 million albums in the United States alone, about half of them since Mercury’s death.-

The release of the movie Wayne’s World helped turn Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” into a fan favorite

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Mercury also lives on in other ways. In 2013, a group of scientists discovered a new genus of frogs in Kerala, India, near where Mercury spent much of his childhood. They named the group “Mercurana,” after the singer, reportedly because Mercury’s “vibrant music inspires” them.

Thomson guest and talented beatboxer, Ben Mirin, shared a special cultural exchange with the Maasai during his safari earlier this month. The Maasai taught him their ceremonial dance and Ben introduced them to the sounds of beatboxing – music they have never heard before. To see how it all unfolded, watch the video below and then read our interview with Ben to learn more about beatboxing and his unique visit.

This musical experiment is impromptu, but it blends basic beatbox techniques with elements of Maasai traditional dance. Creating it with this amazing group of people was a wonderful experience.

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How long have you been beatboxing? Do you beatbox professionally?

I’ve been beatboxing my entire life, or at least as long as I’ve been actively listening to music. My earliest memories of it come from watching cartoons around age seven or eight. I would listen to the theme songs of shows on TV, then repeat the drum and melody lines back to myself, often simultaneously. I can only imagine what my parents thought at the time.

I became a professional beatboxer when I returned to the US from Japan in August 2012. I’ve been performing since late high school, but I got my first paying gigs last fall at clubs in my native Boston. I also developed a curriculum reinforced with beatboxing for an education management startup called Degrees2Dreams in Boston, and am still in the process of refining that program.

How would you describe beatboxing to someone who has never heard it before?

Simply put, beatboxing interprets and reinvents traditional musical sounds through the creativity of the human voice. To say it’s “a person imitating drums” or a DJ might make more sense, but I think that’s too simplistic. I’ve heard beatboxers imitate a huge range of instruments—brass, synth, guitar, etc.—very well, as well as produce musical sounds unique to the human voice. It’s music with your mouth, and it’s a growing genre in Hip Hop and international music.

How did you explain beatboxing to the Maasai?

These Maasai had already shown me incredible kindness by giving a riveting dance performance, and subsequently by teaching me how to dance with them. I explained through a translator that I wanted to express my gratitude by sharing an authentically American musical tradition with them. As the video shows, I began with some very basic beatbox sounds (bass drum, high hat, snare) and asked them to mimic them. Mimicry is a touchstone in my own experience becoming a beatboxer, and I think it’s a natural starting point for anyone interested in trying to learn.

How did the Maasai receive beatboxing?

This I think it is clear in the video…the Maasai loved it! Beatboxing has its roots in New York City, but recently it has become a worldwide phenomenon. This was the first time any of these warriors or women, or the Tanzanians nearby, had heard beatboxing, and I hope a few of them might carry the music with them and help it reach new parts of the world.

What were your impressions of Maasai music?

From what I know about Maasai culture (and I hope to expand that knowledge base), it seems natural that their vocal music tradition should be incredibly robust. In the absence of instruments, which may be too expensive or cumbersome to carry around, they sing with a lot of percussive as well as melodic sounds, from rhythmic bass lines to hisses and loud yelps. It’s completely a product of their environment, and that’s what I love most about it.

How did this experience inspire you creatively and do you think it will inspire your music in the future?

The best thing about beatboxing in my opinion is its universality. It draws on the inherent creative potential of an instrument—the voice—that people use to speak thousands of unique languages across the world, let alone make music. This experience in Tanzania has really got me thinking about ways to explore beatboxing’s potential as a cross-cultural force, with applications both within and beyond music.

Do you have any additional thoughts about the experience?

It isn’t the last…

I want to extend a final thank you to Thomson Safaris! It’s fantastic that you are so engaged in helping local communities in Tanzania, and as someone who balks at being a tourist wherever and whenever possible, I am grateful for the chance to have done something similar. This wonderful experience couldn’t have happened without everyone involved in your program.

Thomson Safaris

Founded in 1981 and based in Watertown Massachusetts, Thomson Safaris has been handcrafting trips-of-a-lifetime for over 30 years. Tanzania is our only destination, and has truly become our second home. We’re excited to be able to share it with you through stories and features on our blog.